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He still looked and sounded pretty shit, and Tahnee suspected that he hadn’t received the full amount required for a swift or complete recovery. But it was a definite improvement, and she found that she was breathing easier as well, relief allowing her to fill her lungs properly once more.

The goons tore off the copious amount of tape that was attaching Robb to the chair’s legs, and briskly undid and re-did his anti-shifter cuffs to detach his arms from the chair’s back.

Technically there was a split second in there when he could’ve shifted, but Robb made no attempt, and Tahnee couldn’t say that she blamed him. There was no way he could’ve taken down a wyvern shifter and two musclebound guys with unknown shifter forms at the best of times, let alone while he was still recovering from being poisoned and Tahnee was cuffed as well.

“I hope you intend to come nicely,” Anne said, as she led them out the door.

“Wouldn’t dream of inconveniencing you,” Tahnee murmured, doing her best to maneuver herself in close to Robb as they were marched toward the lift. Her shoulder brushed his every so often, and it was enough to keep her grounded.

“I’m pleased to hear it,” Anne said as the lift doors closed, and her face broke into an unsettling smile. “I believe that we shall get along famously.”

Chapter 14

Given the windows of this car are already tinted, the blindfolds feel a little like overkill, Tahnee thought, as strong hands on her upper arms guided her out of the open car door.

It seemed like they’d been driving for hours – but perhaps it had just felt like that, in her state of nerves. Right now she couldn’t quite bring herself to care, and in fact it would have been better to drive for even longer: any time spent in tense, frosty silences with a pack of Hargreaves goons in the back of a car was time she didn’t have to come up with ways to stall them on her own.

She knew she could keep up with the best when it came to a bit of banter, but even her well of charm had to run dry at some point. And right now, she also simply wasn’t in the bantering mood.

Robb had been there with her in the expansive leather back seat of the car for the entire ride – they couldn’t exactly communicate, given that the goons had been right there, but she’d been able to sense how he felt through the mate bond. Not that she couldn’t have guessed what he was probably thinking even without it, but all the same, the mixture of tension, anger and uncertainty matched her own exactly.

And she could sense the pain he was still in, despite the antidote he’d been given. Clearly, it had been just enough to keep him upright and breathing, and not much more.

I can’t tell if it’s better or worse that Anne was using her own blood and venom all this time to keep Hargreaves’s stockpiles topped up, Tahnee thought grimly as she stepped out of the massive SUV and put her feet down on solid ground.

Anything, she supposed, had to be better than keeping any creature captive and torturing it to create deadly weapons. But still, there was something… twisted about Anne McIntosh that gave Tahnee the creeps.

I guess that goes without saying.

She supposed she didn’t need another reason to be disgusted by Anne, given she’d tortured Robb and now kidnapped them both, but every little thing just seemed to make the situation worse. Tahnee knew that someone who’d been driven and ruthless enough to give up her own body for her ambitions wouldn’t be very easily dissuaded or stalled from going through with even such an insane plan as waking a dragon by forcing Tahnee to make masses of gold by torturing her mate in front of her.

I don’t know if anyone’s ever thought that sequence of words before in that particular order, Tahnee thought to herself, as she sensed Robb being urged by the goons to get out of the back seat of the car and stand beside her. She couldn’t see a thing, the black fabric they’d tied around her eyes completely opaque, but she could hear his breathing, and she could simply sense his presence.

Wherever they were, it was clear that this was their destination.

But where are we?

Tahnee strained her senses, dulled as they were by the anti-shifter cuffs.

They weren’t in the city anymore, that much was clear. She could smell car exhaust fumes, of course, but it was a lot less concentrated than before. And grass. She could smell the grass of open paddocks, and a kind of resinous, piney scent.

So she guessed they were out in the countryside somewhere – which, given that she and Robb had already guessed the dragon would be somewhere out near where the old gold fields had once been, made sense.

But where exactly do they think this dragon actually is? Tahnee wondered, as she heard another huge SUV pull up nearby – the car that Anne and her lyrebird friend had traveled in – before doors started opening and feet started shuffling around.

Well, if they want me to wake it up by making a ton of gold, I guess they’ll have to enlighten me soon enough.

“Hmm. I suppose there’s no point in keeping the blindfolds on any longer.” The sound of Anne’s voice came from somewhere to her left. “They’ll understand the situation. And why it would make no sense for them to resist.”

“Finally,” Tahnee muttered, unable to help herself, as large hands not-so-gently untied the knot of her blindfold. She blinked in the sudden brightness of the early morning light, her first thought to look over at Robb and check that he was okay – but as her eyes adjusted she blinked again, her mouth dropping open, and she found herself instead staring straight at – at –

A huge medieval castle?! What the hell?!

And that was exactly what it was.

It wasn’t as if it could be mistaken for anything else – there were two round turret structures, with a flagstone stairway leading up to an arched doorway carved into the massive stone wall between them. High walls complete with battlements stretched out on either side of the turrets, interrupted here and there by more, slightly smaller turrets, hung with brightly colored banners that fluttered a little in the wind.

Uh. What.